From the category archives:

Male Vocalists

Tony Bennett “A Swinging Christmas”

by John Micheal Rivera on January 2, 2009

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Tony Bennett records his first holiday CD in forty years since his 1968 release of “SNOWFALL,” and this latest project, “TONY BENNETT: A SWINGIN’ CHRISTMAS Featuring The Count Basie Big Band,” is destined to become an annual favorite of the season. [read more…]

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Bobby Darin, an Extraordinary Talent

January 2, 2009
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Starting at the beginning is always a good idea. In May 1936, on the 14th day, during the last quarter moon of the month, Bobby Darin Was born. He was born with rheumatic fever to a poor Italian family. The fever damaged his heart and would cause him strife throughout his entire life. Having only [...]

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Ann-Margret and Al Hirt – My Baby Just Cares for Me

October 9, 2008

In October of 1960 both Ann-Margret and Al Hirt were booked into the Dunes Hotel Lounge in Las Vegas, NV.  This engagement was before A-M had been formerly discovered by George Burns and well before Al recorded his signature sound at RCA Victor.

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Popular Standards Redefined

June 28, 2008

In my opinion, a pop standard is any song that has been performed or recorded by several people. Something that when you hear the words you are able to sing along. Or for lack of a better term we could refer to them as covers. Some may disagree with me stating that a pop standard, [...]

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Jack Jones, Traditional Pop Legend, Plays UK During 50th Anniversary Tour

May 19, 2008

The traditional pop vocals superstar is as popular in the UK as he is here at home in the good old USA. The 2008, 50th Anniversary Tour includes stops in London, Manchester, Northhampton as well as other cites in the UK.

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Sammy Kaye Sings “The Old Lamplighter”

May 12, 2008

Song History
“The Old Lamp Lighter” is a popular American song by Charles Tobias and Nat Simon. It was published in 1946 and was first recorded by Sammy Kaye, reaching #1 on the Billboard Charts in December of 1946. It was also major country-pop hit for country act The Browns in 1960.

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Johnny Mercer Sings “Personality”

May 10, 2008

Another giant of American popular music that came out of the Big Band/Swing era is Johnny Mercer. Mercer first achieved notoriety and success as a lyricist on collaboration with Hoagy Carmichael, who at the time had already some measure of success with the song “Star Dust”. The two spent a year working on the song [...]

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Perry Como Prisoner of Love

May 9, 2008

In the 1930s and 40s big bands were all the rage. The advent of radio made it possible, for the first time, for music lover’s national wide to listen to the popular bands of the time. Swing music became the dominant form of Jazz and established itself as mainstream popular American music.

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Cozy Cole – Old Man Moze

May 1, 2008

Cozy Cole was born, William Randolph Cole, in October 1909 around East Orange, New Jersey. He began playing drums at a young age landing his first job with Wilber Sweatman in 1928. After leaving Wilber he played for Jelly Roll Morton’s Red hot Poppers in 1930, recording a very early drum solo on [...]

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“To Each His Own” A Traditional Pop Standards Timeline

April 25, 2008

Sometimes a song just seems to take on a life of its own. It catches on and the listening public can’t get enough of it. Artist after artist records the song and the song can remain on the charts for months if not years. While you don’t see this happen very often these days back [...]

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Kollege of Musical Knowledge

April 22, 2008

Ok folks, today’s post is taking us back to the early days of the Traditional pop standards era, 1946. The era starts roughly around the mid 1940s and lasts till sometime in the early 1960s.
Today’s featured artist is unique in that he was not a musician but a business student that started his “musical” career [...]

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Somewhere Over The Rainbow – Frank Sinatra & Judy Garland

April 16, 2008

I started this going forward as a rant about how Frank Sinatra sang “Over the Rainbow” THE WAY A MAN SHOULD SING IT. Then, I remembered how many other versions of this song there are.
So to compare each version would be impossible. Well, not literally impossible but, it would have taken more time than I [...]

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Maurice Chevalier – Pot-Pourri Franco Anglais (French and English Medley)

April 10, 2008

Yesterday I typed a little about Maurice Chevalier, so this is basically a follow up with a second song. Actually a Medley which he cited and called “Pot-Pourri Franco-Anglais” which means “The French and English Medley.”

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